Guyer guard Ola Akinniyi (14) looks to pass the ball during a Class 4A Region 1 bidistrict playoff basketball game between Denton Guyer and Saginaw Boswell at Keller Central High School in Keller, Texas on February 12, 2013.

KELLER — In most cases when a basketball
team has a sloppy game, its head coach will call numerous timeouts to try to
correct whatever is ailing the squad and slow the pace of a frantic game.

That wasn’t the case in Tuesday’s
playoff opener for Guyer, as the Lady Wildcats overcame numerous turnovers and
sloppy play while forcing several turnovers of their own to beat Saginaw
Boswell 47-37 to advance to the area round of the Class 4A Region I playoffs.

Guyer will meet Tuesday night’s winner
between Fort Worth Southwest and Waco on Friday in Waxahachie at a time yet to
be determined.

Guyer coach Harold Colson, who didn’t
call his first timeout of the game until early in the fourth quarter, was in no
hurry to stop the hectic pace of the game when he knew it was favoring his team
against a more methodical Boswell squad.

“I knew coming in that if we pressured
them and got up on them that we could cause some havoc in the game,” said
Colson, Guyer’s third-year head coach. “When you start doing that, you hope it
doesn’t leak into your side. Most of the game it was like that, but as long as
we were scoring and hustling and doing what we needed to do, even if it was a
little sloppy, it was OK because we managed to fight through and win the game.”

While Colson knew he wanted to up the
pace against the Pioneers (22-11), who like to get into half-court situations,
set their offense and get the ball inside to their post players, he also knew
containing the Boswell posts, most notably Taneasha Rhode, would be priority
No. 1.

Enter freshman Bre Wickware, who played
a major role in holding Boswell’s post players to just eight points, all of
which came in the second half. While doing that, she also managed to match
teammate Bre Clay-Baker with a game-high 11 points and pull down seven
rebounds.

“She really stepped up because [Rhode]
is a load, and she didn’t really show it tonight,” Colson said. “I think I have
to credit Bre [Wickware] with that. She’s [Rhode] coming off back-to-back big
games of 17 points and 24 points, so Bre did a good job. We were really
concerned with those two posts [Rhode and Emmie Rodriguez], and she handled
both of them. Being a freshman and doing that is remarkable.”

Wickware said she had plenty of help
from her back-side defense but was surprised with how easy it was to keep Rhode
from getting the ball down low.

“They didn’t want to work for the ball,
so that part — keeping the pass out — came kind of easy,” Wickware said. “We
could rely on our back-side help too. We worked together on that.”

Wickware and Clay-Baker were joined in
double figures by Tierney Peters and Katy Davis, both of whom scored 10 points
each for Guyer.

Peters didn’t have a hot shooting night
like she has at times this year, but she went 3 for 6 from 3-point range, and
all three of her treys came at key times, with the final one comingwith just
1:17 remaining to push Guyer’s lead to nine. That came a minute after a Davis
three-point play pushed the Lady Wildcats’ lead to six points.

“She hit the 3s when we needed a basket
to be made and alleviate some pressure,” Colson said. “It was just huge
shooting by her tonight. She hit some big shots.”

The win marks just the second playoff
win in Guyer history, five years after its first.

Guyer lost in the Class 5A first round
last season to Flower Mound Marcus before dropping back down to Class 4A this
season. Colson made sure to remind his team of that game when he felt his team
failed to show up in the first half.

Now, at least for the time being, the
bad memory of that game can be erased for Colson and his players.

“We went through last season and had a
great year and then had a playoff game where we didn’t really show up that
first half,” Colson said. “These girls had me telling them that, and they know
the history. When I tell them something, they try to prove me wrong, and they
definitely did that tonight. It’s a good win for them. I’m proud of the way
they fought the whole game.”

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